Ford customer and employee records, financial account numbers, internal support tickets, and more were at risk of being stolen before a group of friendly hackers told Ford about the security issue, allowing the company to patch up any security leaks.

The Ford Motor Company confirmed to the Detroit Free Press that it was alerted to the digital security weakness in the first quarter of 2021 when the activist hackers let the company know about the vulnerability.

Discovered by Robert Willis and a colleague named break3r, Willis explained in a blog post recently that attackers could “obtain troves of sensitive records, perform account takeovers, and obtain substantial amounts of data.”

Read Also: 90 Japanese Companies Forming Consortium To Protect Connected Cars From Cyberattacks

Fortunately, Ford was able to patch the vulnerability within 24 hours of being alerted to it.

“Based on evidence provided to Ford and our internal investigation, we don’t believe any sensitive personal information about employees or customers was accessed or compromised in this instance, which was identified and addressed nearly six months ago,” a Ford spokesperson told Freep.

Unfortunately, the company wasn’t very helpful to the hackers in return. Security experts report that, as a courtesy, companies who are helped by white hat hackers are asked to disclose the vulnerability public to help researchers once the situation is safe.

“At this time, Ford’s vulnerability disclosure program does not offer monetary incentives or bug bounties, so a coordinated disclosure in light of public interest was the only ‘reward’ researchers were hoping for,” an industry site called bleepingcomputer.com wrote.

Although the findings of Ford’s vulnerability were recently made public, hackers waited six months before doing so in order to avoid negative repercussions.

The consequences of missing cybersecurity vulnerabilities can be severe and Kia and Hyundai were recently, allegedly, targeted by hackers. Fortunately, many, including 90 Japanese companies, are working to fight hacking in the automotive industry.